Deficit reduction proposals

Bamadog, your proposals are typical. Ineffective, politically impossible, and targeted at "out" groups you dislike (federal employees in particular). And the phrase "market-based" changes to Medicare is simply too vague to have meaning. Remember, we could eliminate ALL non-defense discretionary spending and still have a deficit.
Taxes, medical spending, and defense. If those aren't changed, the deficit will remain, although it will expand and contract in response to economic conditions.

 

Your preference for corporations, cops, firemen and the military and disdain for the government and working folks is so cliche.

 

We cut our defense budget pretty dramatically during peacetime in the early '90s. The cutbacks were widely cited as a reason our intelligence was so lacking before 9/11. Not sure how much of that is truth and how much is political tallying, but that would be a difficult case given the strain our military already faces and the looming possibilities in Iran and North Korea.

 

All disbanding OSHA's gonna do is give rise to labor unions again (which I'm totally fucking fine with) after you start having unsafe working conditions and no one to investigate and prosecute them.

 

I'm not trying to be ideological here, just make the point that the budget is out of balance for one reason only -- people like it that way. Low taxes are popular. Every single dollar the government spends, believe it or not, is popular with some people, and in some cases, VERY popular, enough so it determines votes.
Ethanol subsidies are about as wasteful (and environmentally useless) as government spending gets. So, Mr. Candidate, head on down to the Iowa caucuses and tell the voters you're going to get rid of them. That's just one easy case in point. Every budget item is a similar case.

 

It's easy to blame funding cuts instead of ineptitude when something bad happens on your watch. Cuts to the bureaucracy will be fought tooth-and-nail because every little agency wants a piece of the action. There's no reason to have several intelligence agencies that don't share and hinder our ability to protect this country. One or two will do.

On a county, state and federal level, why are there veteran's offices for all three levels of government? That's a big waste because funding is split so many different ways to operate what could be done for less on a state or federal level.

 

Cops and firemen aren't working folks? That kind of statement deserves to be in the liberal-removed-from-reality hall of fame.

 

Yes.

I use a pre-paid debit card for that stuff, that I only load with the money I need to pay for that stuff.

 

The quote from the unemployment story was fantastic. "The government shouldn't tell me I can't have money" or something like that, with regards to having unemployment run out.

 

He specifically separated them as the only ones allowed to unionize.

 

And what if unemployment doesn't get there in time? In the race between the debt tipping point and economic recovery, I'm thinking economic recovery looks like the long shot bet.

 

Drastically slash Welfare. If you do qualify for under under new stricter rules, you have to do something to earn it -- pick up roadside trash, be school crossing guards or whatever, even just report to a central location and be required to sit there for 8 hours each day. You don't just get to go to the mailbox, pick up a check, lay on the couch and watch your new government-funded flat screen. (This is for Welfare. I'm OK with Disability for those who are truly disabled.)

Stop giving handouts to every POS country around the globe. Have a civil war? Fuck you. Rebuild your own country. Earthquake? Hurricane? Sorry. Mother Nature is a bitch. We'll send you some food and clothes, maybe some medical supplies, but no cash. We will work out a nice payment plan to send US-made materials to your country to rebuild.